6 ways video games can help you make the most out of your life

When it comes to hobbies like playing video games, reading comic books, or obsessively watching films and tv shows, it’s easy to lose yourself in the mindless enjoyment of these things, rather than seeking out lessons to be learned. Although, admittedly, I went to college for theater and got a degree for dicking around all day, so it’s entirely possible that I just don’t take anything as seriously as I should.

Even so, I firmly believe that there are lessons to be learned everywhere, and video games are no exception. Sure, they can be a bit hard to see when sitting on your couch chugging root beer and mowing down terrorists, but they are there nonetheless, just waiting to be learned. Which is why I now present to you a list of the seven best life lessons I’ve learned from my many years playing video games, which I may or may not wave in my Mom’s face later while yelling “SEE? SEE?” at the top of my lungs.

Style matters.

Now, when I say style, it may be easy to assume I just mean visual appearance, but there’s much more to it than that. Sure, when you go to a job interview you want to dress nice, just like how when you slice through ninjas you want to do it in the coolest-looking armor possible, but it’s also important to slice through ninjas (or go to a job interview, for that matter) with panache.

Video games taught me that it wasn’t enough to beat the bad guys. I wanted to do it in a way that I was proud of, that felt like the right way to beat that particular sort of boss, or to pass a certain obstacle, because damn it, while it may not have been the quickest or the easiest, it looked f*cking cool.

The same holds true in real life. I don’t just want to go teach science to children (my day job). I want to go blow those kids' minds with the possibilities, to send them away from the classroom talking about how cool their teacher is because he knows about SCIENCE. Is this unrealistic? Quite possibly. But it’s a lot more fun.